Published: May 16, 2009 10:32 pm      

Days of mute swan numbered?

ANNAPOLIS (AP) — The days of the mute swan in Maryland appear to be numbered.

The population of the invasive birds in the state has dwindled from 4,000 to just a few hundred. Now, a state panel has recommended that they be eliminated entirely to protect wetlands and endangered native birds.

Department of Natural Resources Secretary John Griffin appointed an advisory committee to decide what to do about the birds. The committee told Griffin that the birds are unusually aggressive and “an environmental hazard to the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.”

Animal rights activists oppose Maryland’s policy of killing the birds, which are noted for their beauty. The Humane Society wrote to Griffin that the treatment of the mute swans is “callous and brutal.”